CommonNote CommonNote

Create your first note and notebook

Create a note with the + button in the note list (⌘N) and a notebook with the + next to My notebooks (⇧⌘N). There is no save button.

Applies to Web · Mac · iPhone app

Notes in CommonNote save as you type and show up right away on your other open devices — there is nothing to save by hand. There is no separate title field: the first line of a note is its title. Notebooks are folders for notes, and a notebook can hold sub-notebooks.

Create a note

  1. Click the + button (New note (⌘N)) at the top of the note list. If you have any templates, a menu opens — choose Blank note.
  2. Type the title on the first line. Making it Heading 1 (⌘1, or # at the start of the line) looks best. The title comes from the first line that has text; a note with no text at all is listed as Untitled.
  3. Write the body below it. Type to-dos as a checklist — ⌘9, or [ ] at the start of a line — and they become tasks.
Where you create itWhere the note goes
With a notebook openThat notebook
All notes or another screen that isn’t a notebookNo notebook (top level)
A notebook shared with you where you can’t create notesYour top level, with a message saying so
The Templates screenA new template — see Reuse documents with templates
In a browser, ⌘N and ⇧⌘N are taken by the browser, so use ⌥N (new note) and ⇧⌥N (new notebook). The original keys work in the Mac app. On Windows, use Ctrl instead of ⌘.

Create a notebook

  1. In the sidebar, click the + (New notebook (⇧⌘N)) next to My notebooks.
  2. Type a name in the box that appears and press Enter. Clicking outside the box cancels.
  3. Hover over the notebook row and click the New note in this notebook icon to create a note inside it. You can also right-click the notebook and choose New note.

To put a notebook inside another, click New sub-notebook on the notebook row. Renaming, colors, sharing and deleting are covered in Organize notes with notebooks.

Move a note into a notebook

  • Pick a notebook in the notebook selector (Move to notebook) at the top of the note. Choose No notebook to move it to the top level.
  • Right-click the note in the note list and choose Move to notebook….
  • Drag the note from the note list onto a notebook in the sidebar.

Only the note’s owner can move it.

On a phone

Open the note list from Notes in the tab bar at the bottom of the screen. The tab bar hides while a note is open and comes back when you return to the list. Tap the logo at the top left to open the sidebar.

Have notes in another app? Bring them over with Import at the top of the note list. See Import notes from another app.
  • Organize notes with notebooksNotebooks are folders for notes. You can nest them as deep as you like, and deleting one keeps the notes inside.
  • Find your way around the appThe screen has a top bar, a sidebar on the left, the note list in the middle and the editor on the right. On a phone, you switch screens with the tab bar at the bottom.
  • Reuse documents with templatesMark any note as a template, and new notes can start as a copy of it.
  • Turn checklist lines into tasksChecklist lines in your notes are tasks as they are — they show up in To-dos, the calendar and the project tree without being copied anywhere.